1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for recognizing a music score image included in an image. More particularly, the present invention relates to image recognition of musical notes and accompaniment chords which are included in a music score of an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, carrying a mobile terminal has become common practice, and many people use a personal mobile terminal not only for voice, but for many of types of communication, including data communication. As the mobile terminal becomes more recognized as a type of personal apparatus for people, rather than just for simple voice or data communication, the mobile terminal is actually used as a multimedia apparatus having various functions, such as an MP3 player, a camera, a video player, an electronic dictionary, a game player, etc.
Moreover, users increasingly desire a mobile terminal with more functionality when they “upgrade” to newer models, and desire an increasingly varied amount of functions for various purposes. Mobile terminal manufacturers have been trying to manufacture mobile terminals having increasingly varied functions in order to distinguish their products from those of other companies in order to meet the user's desire.
Meanwhile, with the recent development of the image recognition technology, various techniques for extracting a music score from image data, which is generated by scanning a music score printed on a sheet through use of an image recognition apparatus, such as a scanner, are being developed.
In an image that includes a music score, staff lines included within the music score act as large noise in detecting symbols of the music score by recognition technology, but at the same time, the staff lines are the most important information for analyzing and recognizing the symbols. Therefore, in a method of recognizing a music score included in an image, it is most important to detect and remove staff lines from the music score.
Since most music score images are generated by recognizing an original copy printed or written on paper as an image recognized through an image recognition apparatus, a music score included in a generated image may be inclined or bent. Conventionally, in order to solve these problems, vertical run-length coding, Hough conversion, line adjacency graph (LAG), DP matching, etc. are used in an attempt to overcome the noise generated by the staff lines. However, since the conventional methods target music score images, which are scanned at 300 dpi or higher, using an image recognition apparatus such as a scanner, there is a limitation that the methods can be applied only to music score images of good quality.
When a music score image is obtained through a camera provided in a mobile terminal (such as by photographing a paper copy), the image quality is poor, and distortion, such as the music score included in the image being inclined or bent, may occur in accordance with a location or angle at which the image has been photographed. As a result, it is difficult to recognize a music score included in an image obtained through a mobile terminal by using the above-mentioned methods. Due to such a limitation, music score recognition apparatuses equipped in mobile terminals are used only to extract simple melodies, and cannot induce users to make active use.
Accordingly, there has been a long-felt need in the art for a method of directly and accurately recognizing a music score included in a music score image which is obtained through a camera provided in a mobile terminal, and various information included in the music score, without requiring a separate editing program.